Gallium and Indium Make New Water Filtration Method Possible

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Who doesn’t like to hear about new technologies that could make life better? I especially like hearing about those advances when they involve any of my favorite elements.

Today I was sent an article that involves TWO of my favorite elements, indiumand gallium. The article, “Green Synthesis of Low-Dimensional Aluminum Oxide Hydroxide and Oxide Using Liquid Metal Reaction Media: Ultrahigh Flux Membranes” was written by researchers at UNSW and RMIT describes how galinstan (indium-gallium-tin) can be used to synthesize atomically thin media, which can be used for water purification.

The beauty of this synthesis is that the gallium-indium-tin alloy is reusable and creates the filtering media at room temperature. This process seems to be simple enough to be portable so that it can be use in remote locations – exactly the type of locations that could benefit from clean drinking water.

There are also medical benefits of this technology in that water helps prevent infections and diseases. This is research we would really like to see take off in the near future!